Quarantine is the perfect time to catch up on iconic TV shows, and now you can stream “The Sopranos” on HBO while listening to the brand new podcast “Talking Sopranos.”
It’s a special “watch along” podcast hosted by actors Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher Moltisanti, and Steve Schirripa, who played Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri.
“It’s an episode by episode re-watch podcast,” Imperioli told WTOP. “It also incorporates guests from the show, some of the cast and some of the crew. We go through it scene by scene and we also talk about memories from the time. Then we go into how it relates to our lives now and back then and talk about my career before and after ‘The Sopranos.'”
That includes Imperioli’s breakthrough part as Spider in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” (1990), gunned down by Joe Pesci to the shock of Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro.
“I was 23,” Imperioli said. “I had been struggling as an actor for about six years by then, so it was like getting called up from the minor leagues to the World Series with the Yankees. That’s what that was like for me to be with those guys who were big heroes of mine.”
He had no way of knowing “Goodfellas” would become an all-time classic.
“I only had my scenes from the movie, so I wasn’t sure what it was going to look like on screen,” Imperioli said. “We didn’t know if the movie was going to be a hit … and it turned out to be one of the greats, so that was very, very critical in my career as an actor.”
Over two dozen “Goodfellas” cast members went on to star in “The Sopranos,” including Lorraine Bracco, Tony Sirico, Frank Vincent, Tobin Bell and Vincent Pastore, although Imperioli was arguably the most memorable as rising gangster Christopher Moltisanti.
“Christopher was a very unstable person,” Imperioli said. “Christopher was always trying to just put it together, keep it together and rise up the ladder, but one step forward, two steps back. That instability, which also was reflected in his relationship with Adriana, I think that instability and volatility was something that always brought a lot of tension to the show.”
In a way, Christopher was Tony’s adopted son — tougher than his real son Anthony Jr. — thus it was shocking when Tony pinched his nose to death after a car crash to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” with the symbolic lyrics: “The child has grown, the dream is gone.”
“It was really important for Tony’s character to do something like that to show that he’s a corrupt gangster,” Imperioli said. “He’s not a warm, fuzzy guy who’s just this family guy; he’s a criminal who’s really about self-preservation. … People are enamored of him … but Christopher’s death … drives home the fact that, at the end of the day, he’s a gangster.”
What did Imperioli think when he first read of his character’s death?
“I knew about it a long time before, like a year or two before we shot it,” Imperioli said. “Before it was written, I knew that storyline because I was also a writer on the show, so I was privy to a lot of what was going to happen much more than anyone else from the cast. So I thought it was great. I thought it was really important and a great idea.”
In addition to starring, Imperioli wrote “From Where to Eternity” in Season 2, “The Telltale Moozadel” in Season 3, “Everybody Hurts” in Season 4, and “Marco Polo” in Season 5.
Which of his own creations is he the most proud of?
“The first one just because it was the first,” Imperioli said. “I wrote a spec script between Season 1 and Season 2 because I had fallen in love with the show. … I wrote the spec script about Christopher OD-ing and having visions of the afterlife. [Creator David Chase] really liked it and said, ‘I’m planning on Christopher getting shot, so we can use all this.'”
His favorite overall episode remains “White Caps” at the end of Season 4, hailing the tour-de-force performances by James Gandolfini and Edie Falco in a marital clash for the ages.
“It focuses mostly on Tony and Carmela’s relationship and almost getting divorced,” Imperioli said. “They buy this house down on the Jersey Shore and their marriage is really crumbling. There’s scenes of them together alone really going through their marital difficulties and it’s just some of the best acting and writing I’ve ever seen anywhere.”
In fact, the Writers Guild of America voted it the Best Written TV Show of All Time, thanks to head writers Terrence Winter and Matthew Weiner, who went on to create “Boardwalk Empire” and “Mad Men,” respectively, all under the leadership of Chase as show runner.
“I think it was the first TV show to bring a cinematic quality of storytelling to television,” Imperioli said. “What people got out of movies like ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Godfather,’ that kind of connection, ‘The Sopranos’ brought that to television.”
What’s his take on the controversial cut to black during the finale?
“At first, I thought he was dead,” Imperioli said. “Then I saw David Chase talk about it over the years and one of the lyrics of the Journey song ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ is ‘the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on.’ … It’s more emotional than it is literal, which doesn’t satisfy anybody at all, but that’s what I’ve come to believe.”
I even tossed out my own complex theory to see what Imperioli thought.
“Maybe we should have you on when we do that episode,” Imperioli joked. “You got me thinking about a lot of things.”
